Ellen Prentiss Campbell's collection of stories Contents Under Pressure was nominated for the National Book Award. Her debut novel The Bowl with Gold Seams received the Indy Excellence Award for Historical Fiction. A second collection of stories Known By Heart was published in 2020. Her short fiction has been recognized by the Pushcart Press. Essays and reviews appear in journals including The Fiction Writers Review, where she is a contributing editor, and The Washington Independent Review of Books. Campbell has been a Fellow at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts several times. A graduate of The Bennington Writing Seminars and the Simmons School of Social Work, she practiced psychotherapy for many years. Campbell and her husband live in Washington, D.C. and Manns Choice, Pennsylvania. She is at work on another novel. Connect online at ellencampbell.net.
"In her novel Frieda's Song, Ellen Prentiss Campbell
intriguingly explores the lives of two women-one the real-life
psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann-as they work among the mentally
ill and struggle to find acceptance and love in their own lives. In
different decades they inhabit the same cottage, suffer anguishing
loss, and fight to understand themselves. The connection between
the two characters is moving and unusual, and the book is a small
miracle."- Jack El-Hai, author of The Lobotomist and
The Nazi and the Psychiatrist
"In Frieda's Song, Ellen Prentiss Campbell deftly weaves a
fabric of history and chance from the lives of two very different
women separated by time and space, both struggling to balance the
claims of work and life, both thoroughly acquainted with their own
capacity for self-deception, and both dedicated, heart and mind, to
the life-affirming profession of healing."- Valerie Martin, author
of I Give It to You and Mary Reilly
"In this rich psychological thriller the author's subtle choices
make for a compelling read. A book that cannot be put down!"- Gary
Stein, author of Touring the Shadow Factory
"Seventy years apart in time, two women's lives form the basis of
this provocative novel of parallel narratives. On the eve of the
Second World War, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann comes to America in the
aftermath of a broken marriage and forges ahead with her passionate
commitment to her psychoanalytic practice... Living many decades
later in Fromm's cottage we find Eliza Kline, facing her own
struggles as a therapist and a single mother determined to protect
her vulnerable son. Binding these two forceful women is their
resolve to save and hold fast those who give us reasons to live.
Like the best therapy, Frieda's Song pushes headlong into
unraveling the mysteries of the human heart."- Steven Schwartz,
author of Madagascar: New and Selected Stories and A
Good Doctor's Son
"In Frieda's Song, Ellen Prentiss Campbell makes the
history of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and psychotherapy relevant
politically as well as surprisingly romantic...Frieda says, 'Human
nature tends to health like plants to sunlight.' All of Campbell's
characters-both past and present-yearn for their own kind of
sunlight. A wonderful, compelling read."- Diana Wagman, author of
Life #6 and The Care and Feeding of Exotic
Pets
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